Seiko Epson Expects Its Inkjet Printer Shipments to Fall 10%
March
06– Seiko Epson Corp., the world’s second-biggest printer maker,
expects its shipments of inkjet printers to fall 10 percent next fiscal
year as it eliminates cheaper, less profitable models.
Shipments
will decline in the year ending March 31, 2007, from an expected 17
million units this business year, Executive Vice President Norio Niwa
said in an interview on March 20.
Seiko Epson, which forecasts a
loss this fiscal year, is sacrificing market share to rivals such as
Canon Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. to focus on higher margin models
that can print, scan and copy photos. The company also aims to expand
in the market for projectors to help boost profitability, and expects
to be the leader with a 20 percent share next year.
“The low-end,
single-function printers don’t contribute to profit and it’s not an
area we’re interested in,” Niwa, who is in charge of the printer and
projector business, said at the company’s headquarters in Nagano
prefecture, west of Tokyo. “Because of the change in the product mix,
the overall market share will come down,” Niwa said, reiterating
comments by President Seiji Hanaoka on March 16.
Seiko Epson’s
global printer market share was 20.4 percent in 2004, trailing
Hewlett-Packard’s 35.4 percent, according to researcher Gartner Inc.